Friday, June 29, 2012

It seems lately some really cool DC Universe action figures have been turning up on the internet in these nicely staged settings. This one here of Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold and The Flash in this urban setting is the latest one I've come across. Ofcourse I need not get into the extensive history of Boomerang's time with The Squad but in case some of you didn't know Captain Cold was with The Squad too for issues 16 - 18. Initially he was recruited to help apprehend some criminals from another dimension but soon after was coerced by Rick Flag to join the rest of The Suicide Squad in taking down the Jihad when they attacked Manhattan. Eventually both Boomerang and Cold would find themselves in the criminal collective known as The Rogues. Also on a side note, before The Rogues were formed Mirror Master also worked for The Suicide Squad secretly at the behest of Amanda Waller as The White Queen of Checkmate (see Checkmate 6 & 7 Vol. 2).

As you can see ol Digger was quite happy with The Rogues. More so then he was with the Suicide Squad, but then again one of the differences between The Squad and The Rogues is that most members of The Squad aren't there because they want to be. Come to think of it the same thing could be said about Deadshot with The Secret Six. Interesting when you think about it that by the time the old DCU came to an end two of the Suicide Squad's original members were with other teams.

Although that's not be entirely true, Boomerang was never able to get back in with The Rogues after his Brightest Day resurrection. Things got complicatedwith them and Boomerang even found him self at odds with Captain Cold. He was last seen as a solo criminal again in the final issue of Red Robin (#26) late last year right before the DC reboot. By the way, I think that's cool how the Captain Boomerang action figure packaging card biography mentions both the Suicide Squad and The Rogues.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

I know what your all thinking. Why on earth would I post this given my scalding review of the short lived Keith Giffen Suicide Squad series. And quite frankly I don't blame you, but truth is I'm doing it as a favor to Frank from the Martian Manhunter blog who offered me a bunch of money and some sexually favors in exchange for posting this bio as part of a themed blog cross over series. For the record I only took the money.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Ya know, DC really blows these days. I would say Bronze Tiger is at least as popular as Mr. Terrific. Yet Mr. Terrific got his own series in the reboot (albeit now cancelled) and BT has yet to at least make a guest appearance in the new DCU. Not to take anything away from Mr. T because I think he's a great character too I remember him well from both Checkmate (Vol. 2) as the White King and from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. So as a way to show my displeasure with DC I decided to whip up this little bit of digital art you see to the left of you. Plus, I also fucken hate the new DC logo so I can't think of anyone who's more entitled to taking a swipe at it.
Now, onward to the main event. Below you see what I think is the coolest rendering of Ben Turner with out his tiger mask. I actually really like how it has this slightly unfinished look to it. It's as if someone just started it as a free hand sketch for the Hell of it and it ended up coming out absolutely bad ass. I mean look at the expression on his face and those eyes! RESPECT BRONZE TIGER!HE WILL KICK YOUR META HUMAN ASS!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Compared to Dr. Light Captain Boomerang practically looks like James Bond. With his pathological fear of being defeated at the hands of adolescents Dr. Light was probably the biggest douche bag that's ever been with Task Force X. His inferiority complex made him go from being a whimpering coward one minute to a resentment filled vindictive sadist as we saw during the Janus Directive when he killed Sparkler from The Force of July (one of my favorite Squad kill scenes). All this being said however he definitely brought something to this book as a character. As most of us know Dr. Light would later die on Apokolips fighting with the rest of the kidnapped Squad against Darksied's army in a futile attempt to assert his man hood. In what was one of the oddest Suicide Squad issues ever Dr. Light managed to come back to the land of the living and attempted to rejoin The Squad but Waller would have none of it.

Suicide Squad #27

In the post Suicide Squad series era of the old DCU Dr. Light would become quite a controversial character. First with it being revealed that he was a sexual predator in addition to being a super villain. Soon after wards the decision to have Zatanna mind wipe him would cause fractures in the JLA over the ethical implications of such a procedure. I certainly didn't have a problem with it, as far as I'm concerned Light was lucky not to have faced the possibility of castration.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

"Peace sells, but who's buyin?" You might say Peacemaker (Christopher Smith) is the Punisher of the DC Universe but he came from a very different sort of family related tragedy. Ya see, his father was part of the nazi party and he's driven by a sense of shame over his family history and seeks redemption. He especially has a hard on for terrorists which I think is awesome! Aside from that he loves peace so much that he's willing to kill for it. In a way he reminds me of Blade every bit as much as he does The Punisher.
Peacemaker was an agent of Checkmate during the Janus Directive which put him at odds with The Suicide Squad at first but later joined forces in the final show down with Kobra. He appeared in a few issues of the Suicide Squad during that story arc and was part of some of the coolest fight sequences. Eventually Checkmate discharged Peacemaker for being too extreme and unstable. Sounds to me like he knew how to get things done. I'd love to see a guy just like this be set loose on real terror groups like al-qaeda, hamas and hezbollha.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Old school Suicide Squad fans have had to endure a lot of disappointment lately with the new DCU so I thought something from the good ol days might makes us all feel a bit better. You all of course remember the classic Legends mini-series of the late 80s. This series marks the first mission of Ostrander's Task Force X as they are charged with the task of taking down Darkseid's destructive fiery juggernaut known as Brimstone. They're mission was a success but it came at the cost of team member Blockbuster ending up as dead as fried chicken. As you know he would be the first of many in the coming years.

As far as I know there were only two Impel cards made as a tribute to the Legends series. The other doesn't have any members of Task Force X but I'm glad that this other one featured here has Bronze Tiger "representin". Next up I'll be featuring a unique character I doubt most of you are very familiar with so be back here again in a couple of days.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Once in a while when I'm trolling around on the internet looking for Suicide Squad related stuff I come across these cards. I thought it might be cool to find as many as I could that were of characters who have served as part of Task Force X. So far the art work for the Nightshade and Vertigo cards are my favorite. But there's more, so be back here in a couple of days for part 2. Every two days I'll have the next part to this posting series up.

Left click to enlarge

Take a trip down memory lane or get up to speed with this very informative and comprehensive ifanboy article that runs through John Ostrander's Squad history all the way up to the 52 relaunch, highly recommended!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

REVIEW: Basically, The Squad responds to a hostage situation in Seattle that Basilisk had going on. Only later in the issue we discover the hostages were just a rouse for some unknown reason. The only thing of any real interest going on in this issue to me is that we find out that Waller knew King Shark was going to eat Yo-Yo (#5) but let it happen anyways in order to test a theory she had about Yo-Yo possibly being indestructible.
On a general note about Waller,. in the old DCU she was tough and had to be a bitch once in a while as a matter of practicality. This rebooted Waller just seems to be a bitch for the sake of being condescending most of the time and it's starting to get on my nerves. There's something to be said for an Amanda Waller who understands subtly and using a little "carrot n' stick" strategy when dealing with hard cases like the members of the Squad.

Here we go with some straight talk about how I'm feeling about this title right now. When they rebooted the Justice League it's not like they substituted a bunch of the mainstay leaguers with the characters like the Wonder Twins or Plastic Man. So really I don't know why Adam Glass had to go and fuck with the Suicide Squad so drastically!? Now don't get me wrong because there are characters on The Squad I really do like ( Harley, Black Spider, Diablo etc.) and want to see continue on the team. But I'm at a point now where I really want to see some familiar faces from the Ostrander series too. Chief among them is Captain Boomerang and Bronze Tiger but Rick Flag, Count Vertigo and Nightshade would also make for welcomed additions.
Truth be told although I really did like this book at first but there's been some shit that's been bugging me for a while. First they introduce Boomerang and then take him out of the picture again right away and we haven't seen him again since. Then they have Vertigo on the cover of Resurrection Man #9 but otherwise no where to be found. Checkmate, which is part of Task Force X has only had a mere mention in what's been 10 issues now. The new guy Iceberg has the lamest look since Boomerang's original costume in the old DCU. A black guy with a white fur coat and a white mohawk along with some Bono like yellow spectacles gimme a break! Also, are we ever gonna see Bronze Tiger in the new DCU much less in this book!? Plus I think it's getting to the point where the writing on this book is relying too heavily on Harley's constant mental instability. And yeah I still fucken hate the name Basilisk.

We've talked to death now on this blog the merits for the rebooted Squad to look more like the Ostrander series or less so. I don't need this series to be a slavish carbon copy of the old DCU Squad but to put it succinctly I do indeed want it to look something closer to it then it does now. I'm not gonna try to rationalize or other wise justify my feelings on that any more then I would about why I like checking out hot women in high heels and mini skirts. That's just what I like and that's what I want to see. Same with this book. I'll keep picking it up for now but that will change if Adam Glass doesn't take things in a different direction soon.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

I took a little break this weekend from brooding time to look for some previews of Suicide Squad #10 which comes out next week and has The Squad going up against Bitchalisk again. Can't say I was too thrilled with what I saw thus far of the issue but I did also come across a nice surprise as well. I don't know dick about the Hero Clix game but I've seen the figurines around. Some of them look pretty good, others are kinda lame. But I've always loved models and diorama scenes and I think that totally rocks that somebody out there set this up. Although I have to admit I cheated a bit here I used photoshop to add Multiple Man into the photo image and then make multiple (sorta no pun intended) copies of the first much like how the actual character does. I also added Dr Light for the Hell of it. You can see the original set up before I tweaked it here: http://toychop.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/capture-the-flag/the-suicide-squad-vs-kobra-2/

By the way, Young Justice this weekend and last weekend kicked ass again. The real Roy Harper has finally been found, some post relationship tension comes to a head between Ms. Martian and Superboy and we discover that Aqualad hasn't turned evil but has been on a highly secretive deep cover assignment. Did anybody out there catch that "If your up for it" comment by Cheshire to Red Arrow last weekend? I think there was an inside joke there.